At the Pay TV Show today, Philo CEO Andrew McCollom shared that the company doesn’t plan to create any original content. “We don’t want to get into the business of creating original content, because that puts us in competition with our programmers,” said McCollom. The company plans to continue to invest in “building the best technology and user interface.”
Just last week, Fubo announced that they would begin creating original content for an upcoming free channel on the service. Subscribers of Hulu Live TV has access to all of Hulu Originals like The Handmaid’s Tale, while YouTube TV can watch YouTube Premium shows like Cobra Kai.
McCollom doesn’t see the company adding sports to their 58-channel skinny bundle any time soon either. By focusing on entertainment-only content, he feels they can continue to “high value package at a sustainable price point.” Before Philo, “there was no way to get those channels (referring to entertainment channels) without paying a huge premium to pay for live sports.”
By leaving sports which continues to be a big bulk of the cost of the bundle, McCollom doesn’t expect the company to have to keep raising prices to make the margins work.